Voters on election rematch: 'I wish younger candidates had a chance'

Voters who spoke to the BBC weighed in on a face-off that polls show most Americans are not keen on

With sweeping victories on Super Tuesday, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are on the verge of securing the presidential nomination for their respective parties.

The results almost guarantee that the sitting president, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor will face off in November, in a rematch of the 2020 election.

And yet, for months, opinion polls have suggested that a majority of Americans are not keen on another Biden-Trump contest in November.

We asked members of our US voter panel who are not very enthusiastic about the candidates on offer how they felt in 2020, and what's changed in the years since.

Kathleen had hoped Ron DeSantis would be a fresh Republican candidate for 2024 - but will reluctantly vote for Trump again.

I voted for Donald Trump in 2020 because I was genuinely pleased with his accomplishments in office.

In 2016, I voted for him largely because I couldn't in good faith vote for Hillary Clinton, but I didn't know what to expect from Mr Trump. I don't think anyone else did really.

I wouldn't vote Democrat for a host of reasons but even if I were to consider that, my Democratic candidate choice would not be Joseph Biden.

Whoever sits in the White House next needs to be at the top of their game, not in their last inning. I wish younger candidates in both parties had a chance this time, but it is what it is.

Shloka voted for Mr Biden four years ago and will do so again in November.

What's different this time is that we have Covid vaccines and physically going to the polls will feel like less of a life-and-death activity.

But speaking of life and death, we now have wars in Ukraine and Gaza to contend with. While I don't approve of how Biden has been handling those situations, I am certainly not willing to add fuel to the fire by electing Trump.

I still believe that Biden and the Democrats are capable of working with allies and using diplomacy to solve crises at home and abroad. I have no desire to return to an isolationist Trump era where America can't take care of its own people let alone help those on the other side of the world.

I also cannot bear to see the Supreme Court stacked any further to a Republican advantage and see the rights of more women and minorities get stripped away.

Samian abstained from voting in 2020, having backed left-winger Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. This time, he plans to vote for Mr Trump.

In 2020, I felt that both candidates were mediocre and tone-deaf to the concerns of working Americans.

Now, having enough understanding of how each candidate has governed as president, I strongly feel that Trump is the lesser of the two evils and will vote for him this time around.

I tend to be liberal on issues such as abortion and labour unions while strongly being anti-interventionist on foreign policy. For me, Biden neglects Americans' domestic needs to fuel wars abroad. I don't support squandering American taxpayer money on Ukraine and Israel. I also worry that a second Biden term means a new world war against China over Taiwan.

I hope that Trump can capitalise on an America First sentiment so we can reverse course from Biden's disconcerting foreign policies.

Fred - who filled in his 2020 ballot for every race except the presidential contest - is "tired" and "disappointed" with the two main parties.

I am disgusted that Trump is the likely Republican nominee. I am saddened that the Democrats are staunchly supporting a very elderly man with apparent cognitive issues.

Neither is fit to be president. I will not, absent catastrophic circumstances that I cannot currently imagine, vote for either Trump or Biden.

I hope that there will be a centrist third party candidate. I do not subscribe to the idea that a third party candidate will harm one of the party candidates over the other.

And I refuse to be agree with the ridiculous idea that "if you don't vote for X you are really voting for Y".

Ebun voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and then switched to Joe Biden in 2020. She plans to vote for the Democrat again this November.

There is no longer a Republican Party in this country. What used to be that party is now the party of Trump, as Donald Trump Jr assured us a couple of years ago.

The man who made his party follow his agenda will have no problem subsuming the nation to the Trump family agenda. That could be the end of democracy as we know it.

Biden may be weak on immigration, he may be old, and his Bidenomics may not be too impactful, but he is a good man. Unlike the other guy, he will not normalise evil.

Jim says he faces a "conundrum" in the general election. He won't vote for Biden, but thinks Trump is a divisive figure.

I haven't completely decided what I'm going to do in November. I'm wrestling with that.

I think Nikki Haley has a better chance in the general election against President Biden but it's clear she's not going to survive in the Republican race.

Even Democrats are not happy with Joe Biden. But with Trump it's time to turn the page. In 2016, it was a little bit different - he was new and things were stable on the international scene. That's not the case now.

Trump is a volatile mood-driven individual, so once he wins the nomination, I will watch who he surrounds himself with, including his pick for vice-president. If he gets people who are serious around him, that could make a big difference. We need to have adults in charge.